I have been using fly reels for a long time. These ranged from Olympic skeleton frame reels in the 60's all the way up to the Cascapedia salmon reel I used yesterday. I have never seen or heard of this. I am not suggesting that it is not happening, just that I have not encountered it myself. I hope you fellows get the problems sorted out with this.

sorry for the delayed response. I haven't gotten out fishing since I posted this.

I don't believe it'd be my casting stroke. I don't recall this happening with my previous alpha. I put the new bearing in it and same thing.

Its not multiple false cast. I can start with just a little line out and do one false cast and it will reel up a foot of line. I can stand in my house with no line out and just the handle section of the rod and give one little tiny cast type movement and it will spin freely.

There is no way I can move my arm that makes it so the spool doesn't spin.

Why is everyone so quick to assume its me that is causing the problem. And for those who assume its my casting stroke, why is it no advice was given on how to fix it. Couldn't be an Allen product...must be you.

I'm not understanding what it would be. The best solution would be to send the reel to my partner Evan. He'll test it. If there is an issue. I'd replace it. Send me a PM and I'll send you his address. In the next 2 weeks I'll be traveling so Evan would be best to se d the reel to.

What size of Alpha are you using? As I stated before the reel does not have an outgoing click. The low friction of the reels bearings is allowing the spool to revolve slightly due to an abrupt stop at the end of your strokes. The more mass the spool has the further it will move before coming to rest. So larger reels should be worse than smaller reels on the amount of line they pick up. The more rapidly you move the reel through the air the more its momentum will want to keep it moving when you stop the stroke. Casters with a rapid or aggressive stroke may have more problem with this than others.

Adjusting the drag will have no effect on this problem. The drag only effects line that is being pulled off of the reel not line winding on. I guess that if the spool was out of balance this might contribute to the problem but I don't know that. Have you tried adjusting where the spool handle is located at the end of the cast to see if that makes any difference? Probably a position that works on the forward cast won't work on the back cast.

I have an Allen 8/9 that the spool will rotate as to wind the line on also. But it is only maybe a 1/2 rotation. But as Frank stated I either have the extra line in my hand or my free hand controlling my line .
I just took it to be the smoothness of the reel. If you send yours back and there is a concern able issue please keep us informed. As far as the quality and pricing Justin has a great product.